After a screening of the documentary The Problem with Apu, the Center for Media and Information Literacy hosted a post-screening panel discussion. The film focuses on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian immigrant in the animated sitcom The Simpsons who, for a period, was the only figure of South Asian heritage to appear regularly on mainstream U.S. television. The film explores encounters with negative stereotypes, racial microaggressions and slurs against people of Indian and South Asian heritage disseminated through the character.

Panelists include Lori Tharps, associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Temple University and founder of the blog “myamericanmeltingpot”; Anna Arabindan-Kesson, an assistant professor of Black Diasporic Art with a joint appointment in the Departments of African American Studies and Art and Archaeology; Ashutosh Malik, a junior pursuing a double major in economics and finance at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and the President of Kaafila: The Indian Student Association at Temple; and Imran Siddiquee, a filmmaker, writer, speaker, and activist challenging the representation of race and gender in popular media.